It took me about a day to calm down after Ed’s brilliant master class. It was one of those overwhelming experiences that make you feel so hyped! There was so much to take in. Sitting there was definitely some sort of an adrenalin moment according to one of the things we learned.
Although there are still various things that need to be fixed with my animation I will have to leave it at that for the time being. There are other projects aligned so I have to get started.
Just wanted to say thanks for everyone who shared their thoughts with me about this exercise. It was fun working on it.
Attending the Ed Hooks master class was an amazing experience. It was like watching an iron chef preparing his most famous dish.
His passion about his craft is so captivating, it makes you feel mesmerised. The breakdown of the acting component in animation was fascinating, inspiring and very “flavoursome”. It’s one of those dishes that leaves you with the most incredible after taste.
The “recipe” consisted of some important acting principles followed by examples from various films such as Chaplin’s “Gold Rush”, Miazaki’s “Spirited Away” and many more. He showed us some brilliant demonstrations of power centres and explained what they are. I had to do a walk cycle of someone his power centre is in his groin (which was pretty funny!). We spent a little bit of time discussing the face and the seven emotions humans do. Then later, he showed us some of Paul Ekman’s work as a reference. Last but not least he did some scene deconstruction based on one of the books he wrote.
Overall I can honestly say his “dish” was very well made. It had a secret ingredient called love. You could really sense that he is so into what he does by the way he pays attention to detail. It was a unique experience which I highly recommend everyone to do if the opportunity may arise.
In this pass, I looked into energy and appeal. There were few inconsistencies that weren’t working for me quite right. Some of the gestures were a little bit off time and sluggish or others were little bit too fast and different to the realistic style I had at the beginning of the animation.
As a result I changed few poses and tweaked the timing once again to push it a little bit more. There are still few things I’d like to fix but I suppose I will have to put it on hold until after the master class this coming weekend.
Before I start my rambling, I just want to say that even though I have joined the pre-master class a little bit late, I had heaps of fun!
Working on the two takes I animated taught me some valuable things about acting in animation.
Prior to this task I would normally think about the one action the character is doing and what will be the best way to depict it.
This assignment pushed me forward by teaching me that there are more things that need to be taken into account such as:
Mood - what is the character doing before carrying out the action that leads to the change of emotion.
Reaction - what body gestures help conveying there is a change of emotion. What poses help you tell the story.
Layout and right use of camera angles - what helps to achieve solid continuity in the action. I found that two many cuts or two many camera angles can break the energy of the action.
Staging - what other props can help you tell the story.
Asking myself all these questions helped me to look at the shots from a different perspective. As a result I could push the shots a little further every time I worked on them.
Even though I haven’t managed to polish both takes to the level I wanted, I am quite happy with what I achieved so far. It’s still work in progress and I am looking forward to expand my acting education even more.
